Comment by trustfundbaby | Hacker News Reader

Comment by trustfundbaby | Hacker News Reader

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win --- Gandhi

This happens with every popular new tech that does things differently from how its been done before. Since I've been developing I've seen it happen with

PHP

Rails

mongodb

now node.js

As long as there is a critical mass of developers that want to use a certain technology, there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it. They'll keep making it better and better until the naysayers have little or nothing they can criticize, and then it won't matter because everyone will be using it anyway.

Its great to see people stepping out to tamp down the hype though, that's the necessary next step in the evolution of any new tech.

I'm going to make a guess at your age based on this list, I predict you are less than 30 years old.

This is because your list is missing Java. During the mid to late 90s Java was Jesus. It was the solution to every possible computing problem imaginable. The amount of hype surrounding Java puts anything we've seen since to shame, even NoSQL, "cloud" computing, social networking, etc. It was infuriating. And it took a few years of everyone and their mother banging away at Java development before people realized that it wasn't the Messiah, it was just a technology with a few advantages as well as some disadvantages, and that it was a good idea to only use it sometimes and keep using other languages when appropriate.

Remember that JavaScript has absolutely nothing to do with Java except the name was changed and some of the syntax was changed to make it more closely resemble Java merely out of a crass marketing attempt on Netscape's part.

I think the hype cycle[1] is more apt than the Gandhi quote in several of the cases you mentioned.

In fact, I would say that node has simply passed the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" and is/has-been descending into the "Trough of Disillusionment".

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle

I agree with you completely. I thing it so important to remember both the value of criticism and that the technology is still growing and adapting.

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